[Bob Pr.]

Whew!!

It wasn't easy or for sure but the Kansas Jayhawks, rated #1 in the nation -- KU, the birthplace of college basketball and ALL competitive basketball -- won the Big 12 Tournament over the nation's #5 ranked team, the Kansas State Wildcats (for the 3rd time this year).

I hope we play them a fourth time -- in the final game for the National Championship. :smile:

 

[Nick]

Not that it makes a difference, but K-State is ranked #9 AP, #9 ESPN/USA Today. With that win, Kansas secured the overall #1 seed. My Cats play this afternoon in their conference tournament championship, and it will be interesting to see how they respond. Mississippi State is playing for a tournament spot. Win or lose, UK has a #1 seed. That has all the markings of an upset, especially since MSU and UK are not rivals (unlike the semi-final game v. Tennessee (#15 ESPN/USA Today, #13 AP)).

If UK plays like they did last night, and KU and UK are on the same side of the bracket as Joe Lunardi currently predicts, then the de facto NCAA Championship game may very well occur in the Final Four...much like in 1996 when UK and UMass (which were considered the top 2 teams most of the season) met in the semi-finals. UK won, and went on to win the national championship game fairly easily. I think that very well may happen here...whichever team wins the UK/KU matchup will roll on to their 8th/4th championship. Of course I'm assuming both make it to the Final Four. I believe 2008 was the first year all four #1 seeds made it to the Final Four. In every other year there have been big upsets.

 

[Jefferson'n'Ted]

Were you able to watch the game yesterday Nick? Awesome. Can't wait for the game today.

 

[Nick]

Were you able to watch the game yesterday Nick? Awesome. Can't wait for the game today.

Surprisingly, most of the games have been covered down here. I had to watch some of the earlier non-conference games online, and their first SEC Tournament game against Georgia wasn't carried down here. But yeah, I watched the game. I had to not read any text messages, answer my phone, or look at facebook because I had to take some friends to the airport and had to watch it on my DVR. I have to say, that was the best I've seen them play since blowing out Arkansas. I was beginning to worry about their perimeter shots, but it's nice to see that's coming back around.

 

[Jefferson'n'Ted]

Woot what a game! Nick, did you see that ESPN is predicting that UK VS UL could be a 2nd round game?

 

[Nick]

Woot what a game! Nick, did you see that ESPN is predicting that UK VS UL could be a 2nd round game?

That was one of the better games I've watched in years. You could tell MSU was really fighting for their tournament life. There have been close games that were close due to UK's poor play, but I thought MSU played extremely well and UK also had a good game...not their best, but you can't say it was close because UK played poorly.

I'm not a fan of matching teams up that early that have already played each other. I hope they don't do that, but it would be sweet to beat UL again on the way to the national championship game. Although, when you put two rivals together, it doesn't really matter that one is 32-2 and the other is 21-11 (or whatever they are). They would be a dangerous second round opponent. I guess we'll find out shortly if Lunardi was right.